I’ve been reading some good stuff the last few weeks, thought I’d share it here. Pedagogy Cheating to Learn. A great way to engage students is put them in charge of the conditions for their exam. These students “cheated” by working together on an animal behavior final. Math teacher explains math anxiety. Math and science anxiety [...]

A few weeks ago I was reading over page proofs for a now-published manuscript, and I must have had my science writer brain on. I started to read what I had written and, for one excruciating moment, was horrified at what I saw. The writing seemed so stiff, so lifeless! Who the heck was I [...]

It was getting late, the student center all but deserted. My old friend and I had a table to ourselves, awkwardly wedged among the chairs that had been set in a circle for an invited talk I had just given to some undergraduates about issues for women in science. My friend alluded to having a [...]

Earlier this semester I talked about a few new kinds of assignments I was trying out in my evolutionary medicine class. I’ve got my students posting on the readings every week at the group blog, and there have been several great interactions. For instance, here is a thoughtful comment on one student’s post: “…I have [...]

Field experiences are often what help an undergraduate decide whether or not to pursue biological anthropology, they determine the course of a graduate student’s dissertation, and they provide the data needed to launch grants and make tenure cases for faculty. Yet, because field experiences often occur in remote places, far from our universities, entirely different [...]

Here is my grant rant. It is very, very simple. Last night I was talking to a colleague who just heard he missed the funding cutoff for his NIH grant by a single point – a score of 19 and under was funded, and his grant was a 20 (Edited 1/27 8pm CST to fix [...]

I’ve been teaching a 200-level evolutionary medicine course at my university for four years. Each year I try something a little different to give students more ways to express themselves and to demonstrate their understanding of the material. But these changes have always been within the realm of assignments they and I can easily recognize [...]

I used to have a colleague who thought it was funny to yell “back to work!” whenever he saw me. He would regale me, a young, breastfeeding assistant professor with an infant in tow and a 750 student course, with tales of when he was an assistant professor and would work all day, come home [...]

This here blog is many things — ladybusiness explainer, bad science outer, and a place where I reflect on higher education and the academic life. Today is the last day of the semester here at the U of I, there’s a lovely dusting of snow on everything, and it seemed like a nice time to [...]

Some interesting, insightful, or amusing things I’ve been reading this week. The DSM-V is out I’m not a psychologist, but the DSM, or Diagnostic Systems Manual, is still important to my research, but as someone who teaches evolutionary medicine, most especially my teaching. I have been teaching the shift from the DSM-IV to DSM-V (excuse [...]

Original image by Charles M. Schulz/Peanuts.

I first became aware of Dr. Terry L. Maple when I read his article in the latest issue of The Observer, the magazine of the Association for Psychological Science. Maple is former president and CEO of the Zoo Atlanta as well as the Palm Beach Zoo, and is currently a professor in the departments of [...]

[Data collection fortnight ends today. And then we shall return to our regularly scheduled programming. Until then, here's Rule #1, from the archives.] If you are giving a talk, or teaching a class, or are otherwise responsible for transmitting content from your brain to other peoples’ brains, you should be able to give that talk [...]

The focus has been getting the trapping research going. It is labor intensive because it requires the labor of setting it up. But as I stated before, the weather is not being my friend. But here is the recap of my second week in Tanzania. [View the story "#DispatchesDNLee Getting To Work" on Storify]

I am back and ready to work. Kind of. LOL, this heat and humidity is kicking my butt. What was I thinking coming back in the rainy season? Oh, yeah, I gotta know how the different seasonal patterns may affect natural history of the Pouched Rats. My time has been on getting the necessary approvals [...]

My hands are full lately, as you can tell. Here I am checking on one of my Ghana Pouched Rats. Just as adorbs, but I am sure very different than my Tanzania Pouched Rats – in look and behavior. Notice how I’m NOT in this picture with this sleepy-head rat.  I’m interested in working with [...]

Undergraduate Diversity Travel Awards to Botanical Society of America Meetings The PLANTS program (funded by the National Science Foundation and Botanical Society of America) encourages the participation of undergraduates from underrepresented groups at the annual meetings of the BSA and affiliated organizations (this year in New Orleans, Louisiana, July 27-31, 2013). These meetings focus on [...]

Science is experiencing a boost in enthusiasm and participation from the Citizen Science Movement.  For those familiar it conjures up images of kids, adults and seniors counting birds or counting stars at night.  Having thousands of eyes and ears all over the globe helping a team of scientists collect or sort through piles of data [...]

On Thursday, January 31, 2013 I will be co-moderating a ScienceOnline Session on Diversity in the Sciences with Alberto Roca of MinorityPostdoc.org. The audience will surely have many individuals interested in this topic as we explore many different avenues of diversity and inclusion in sciences and higher education. I pleased to share that the audience [...]

A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore– And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over– like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does [...]

My relationship with my hair has been tenuous my entire life. Like most little (black) girls of my generation (X) there was much hullabaloo over length, softness and coarseness.  I liked my hair as a child.  It was long, soft, thick and ‘good’ – a ridiculous term to describe the relative curliness, waviness and ease [...]

I have been pre-occupied with paperwork and approvals to get my rats to Oklahoma so that I can get started with my laboratory studies on behavior and genetics.  Fingers crossed (and prayers solicited) for a safe and uneventful trip for my rats and the courier. UPDATE: Rats are NOT en route. While I was sleeping [...]

So even after Affirmative Action, there still weren’t very many Blacks and Mexican students enrolled in selective colleges and universities. Why? Because they didn’t meet the entry standards. That makes sense. But what isn’t thoroughly addressed (in this clip) is the reason why. Professor Lino Graglia admits he is not exactly sure why idea why [...]